There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak is a rich, sweeping novel about love and loss, memory and erasure, hurt and healing.

Set between the 19th century and modern times, the book is centered around three enchanting characters living on the banks of the River Thames and the River Tigris – their lives all curiously touched by the epic of Gilgamesh.

‘Elif Shafak is a unique and powerful voice in world literature’ – Ian McEwan

‘Make place for Elif Shafak on your bookshelf. Make place for her in your heart too. You won’t regret it’ – Arundhati Roy

‘One of the best writers in the world today’ – Hanif Kureishi

About the book

A dazzling feat of storytelling from one of the greatest writers of our time, Elif Shafak’s There are Rivers in the Sky is a rich, sweeping novel that spans centuries, continents and cultures, entwined by rivers, rains and waterdrops:

‘Water remembers. It is humans who forget.’

This is the story of one lost poem, two great rivers, and three remarkable lives – all connected by a single drop of water.

In the ruins of Nineveh, that ancient city of Mesopotamia, there lies hidden in the sand fragments of a long-forgotten poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh.

In Victorian London, an extraordinary child is born at the edge of the dirt-black Thames. Arthur’s only chance of escaping poverty is his brilliant memory. When his gift earns him a spot as an apprentice at a printing press, Arthur’s world opens up far beyond the slums, with one book soon sending him across the seas: Nineveh and Its Remains.

In 2014 Turkey, Narin, a Yazidi girl living by the River Tigris, waits to be baptised with water brought from the holy sit of Lalish in Iraq. The ceremony is cruelly interrupted, and soon Narin and her grandmother must journey across war-torn lands in the hope of reaching the sacred valley of their people.

In 2018 London, broken-hearted Zaleekhah, a hydrologist, moves to a houseboat on the Thames to escape the wreckage of her marriage. Zaleekhah foresees a life drained of all love and meaning – until an unexpected connection to her homeland changes everything.

About the author

Elif Shafak is an award-winning British Turkish novelist, whose work has been translated into 56 languages. The author of 19 books, 12 of which are novels, she is a bestselling author in many countries around the world. Shafak’s last novel, The Island of Missing Trees, was a top 10 Sunday Times bestseller, and was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award and the Women’s Prize for Fiction. Her novel 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the RSL Ondaatje Prize.

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Categories Fiction International

Tags Elif Shafak New books New releases Penguin Random House SA There Are Rivers in the Sky